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GERMAN INFLUENCE ON TWO 
HEMISPHERES 



AN ADDRESS 



BY 



JERRY A. MATHEWS 



ON 



German Day, July 15, 1906 



AT 



CJERMANIA PARK, INDIANAPOLIS, 
INDIANA 



By Invitation of the 
GERMAN AMERICAN ALLIANCE 



HERALD Co., PRINTERS 

WINCHESTER, INDIANA 
1906 






GERMAN INFLUENCE ON TWO 
HEMISPHERES 



f( 



Ladies and Gentlemen: 

I esteem it an honor to be permitted to join with the Geruian- 
Amtricans of Indianapolis in these exercises. I will not detain you 
long. The proprieties of this occasion forbid it. Besides, in prom- 
ising to be brief, I am but following the advice of two men whose 
judgment you will heartily join me in commending, When my good 
friend, and your neighbor, (Japtain Jacob L. Bieler, invited me, he 
was thoughtful enough to suggest that a brief address would be a 
popular one, I am admonished by still another eminent German 
authority. The great Bismarck once said: 

Oratory will oue day come to be looked upon as a generally 
harmful quality, and a man will be punished who allows himself to 
be guilty of a long speech. 



y' My German friends, you have one accomplishment, more per- 
(/ fectly developed than any other people; you have learned the philos- 
f phy of contentment. You know the value of industry, and you ^ 
kaow also the value of recreation. You realize the force of the say,-* 
ing: "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." Thus you 
seem to get more pleasure out of both labor and recreation than 
others do. ; 

It is a beautiful and patriotic sentiment which prompts you 
German-American citizens of Indianapolis to assemble once a year 
to do honor to the land of your ancestry, and to the great German 
names that have illuminated the world's history. A good German 
necessarily is a good American. In welcoming the German war 
veterans at the White House recently. President Roosevelt said: 

The reverence a man preserves for his native land, so far from 
standing in the way of his loving and doing his full duty by the 
land of his adoption, should help him towards this love and the per- 
formance of this duty. The quality that makes a man reverence 
The country of his birth is apt to be the quality that makes him a 
good citizen in the country of his adoption. 

The three crowning virtues of citizenship are love of God, love 
of humanity, and love of country. 

I trust you will permit me to have a greater share in this day's 
exercises than that of a guest, merely, for I count it my good for- 

(tune that my grandfather was a German, who transmitted to me, 
through my good father, the splendid legacy of health, a strong con- 
stitution, and a capacity for hard work. I think these of much 



1 



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more valae in life than any amount of money or property. He was 
a Pennsylvania German, who, following the German's love of ad- 
Tonture, came to the middle west as a pioneer. In the neiKhborhood 
where hv lived he was esteemed. I am told, for his industry, frugal- 
ity and honesty — (lualities that characterize the average German 
citizen in America. And 1 feel that I will not have lived in vain, if. 
after I have completed ray cour.se in life, my contemporaries may 
8ay of me, as his said of him, that I lived honestly and wronged no 
man. I have been told that this gx-andfather bf mine was a man of ■' 
strong will, and that he liked to have his own way. It may be that 
this is a German characteristic. Self-assertion is not a bad quality. 
It is the complement of courage. The German, in whatever station 
you have found him, has always been strong-willed and self-reliant. 

Was it not Martin Luther who stood upon the rock of con- 
science and said to the world: "Here stand I. I cannot otherwise, 
God help me." And thus he exemplified tne highest quality of the 
German character of all creeds in all epochs, i Knightly courage and ^ 
perseverance have been the distinguishing qualities of those superb 
German characters who have made history^ We have all been 
thrilled with, admiration as we read over and over again as students 
of history, of the long struggle for recognition for his art by Beetho- 
ven, who for years endured poverty and was denied popular favor, 
but who, when I e stood up in a German court and was asked to pro- 
duc§ proofs of his nobility, pointed to his head and his heart and re- 
sponded: "My nobility is here, and here." His biographer has said 
of him that Beethoven was a lover of liberty, and "the Republic of 
Plato was transfused in his flesh and blood." 

When he believed tliat Napoleon would republicanize France he 
laid the rich tribute of his art at the conqueror's feet. He composed 
and in.scribed to Bonaparte the "Heroic Symphony." But when the 
first consul, instead, made himself Emperor, so strong was Beetho- 
ven's love of liberty that he tore up the dedication and threw it 
upon the ground. In his early career the world seemed dark to him. 
His art was still vainly knocking at the door of popular favor. 
That love, with which his heart abounded that overflowed in 
"Fidelio," failed of domestic realization. When fortune seemed 
most forbidding he cried out from the depths of his despair: 

I have no friend: I must live with myself, alone; but 1 well 
know that God is nearer to me than to my brothers in the art. 

This was not seli-esteem; it was self-appraisement. It was that 
divine bestowal of the appreciation of his art with which the true 
artist is ever endowed. It was that faith in self which keeps every 
hero at his task until he commands from the world his immortal 
due. Beethoven said to a friend: 

I have no fear for my works. Xo harm can betide them. 
Whoever understands them shall be delivered from the burdens 
that afflict mankind. 

Poverty and disappointment attended the artist's early efforts, 
and the world was harsh, but when sorrow smote his heart strings he 



MAF. a W6 



responded, not with a sigh bat with a symphony that lives and 
stirs the hearts of men long after the composer has joined the 
■'Choir invisible, whose music is the gladness of the world." 

The sturdiness of the German character manifested itself in a 
rich contribution to statecraft, through a line of the greatest kings 
in history; names that are syuonomous with chivalric courage and 
worthy of the world's best traditions; men mighty in war and sub- 
lime in peace. There was the great Hermann, who, sixteen years 
before Christ, turned his bacic upon the splendor of Rome, where he 
had been carried as a child, reared and knighted, to return to his 
native forests and liberatp the land from Roman domination. He led 
her conquering hosts witli such iutrepidity that 'hey wrung from 
the Emperor Augustus Caesar the historic cry, "Give me back my 
legions!" Confronting in battle his recreant brother, who had pre- 
ferred the splendor and titles of Rome to the forests that sheltered 
rheir native clan, he denounced him, and inspired the lines: 

"Where heroes press, 
And spoilei'S bend the knee, 
Armiuius is not brotherless. 
His brethren are the free." 

Those were the days of a splendid chivalry. Returning from 
one of his invasions of Germany Julius Caesar said that the Ger- 
mans of that day had more of good customs than the Romans had 
of good laws. 

There was Henry the Fowler, who, w'hen the King's messenger 
came to anoint him for the crown, found him in the wood with his 
falcon on his arm. With fine chivilric spirit he replied that the 
anointment should be for others. 

Going to the throne he drove off the Huns and Vandals, and 
gave his country such a rc-igu as to call from Thomas Carlyle this 
tribute: 

Hail, brave Henry: Across the nine dim centuries we salute 
thee, still visible as a valiant son of Cosmos and son of Heaven, be- 
neficently sent us as the man who did in grim earnest serve God in 
his day, and whose works accordingly bear fruit to our day and to 
all days. 

It has been said of Frederick William the Great Elector, that 
the house of Hohenzollern owes to him its primaiy importance a 
century before Frederick the Great. With knightly courage worthy 
of the world's best traditions he met the armies of the great Swed- 
ish, Karl Gustav, at the battle of Fehrbellin. Outnumbered and 
outclassed he knew not defeat nor retreat. Firing his pistol in the 
air he exclaimed: 

Tis to thy glory great God, that I discharge my arms. Defend 
my cause, for thou knowest it to be just; punish mine enemies, for 
thou knowest them to be relentless. 

And with marvelous faith and courage he inspired his soldiers 
to a great victory. 
The historian McCauley said of Frederick the Great that he was: 



>»*. 



r^ 






6 

"The greatest kins^ that has in modern times succeeded by right of 
birth to a throne," and yet like every great soldier in every epoch of 
the world's history, he had that tender consideration for the weak 
which is the surest attribute of the strong. Mark his instructions 
to the judtjcs, inscrit)ed on the petitions of his subject*, who wrote 
the king asking him to grant a re-hearing of their causes. Said the 
great Frederick to these judges: "Do not be so harsh upon the 
poor.'' 

On this day it is well for us, as German-Americans, to recall his 
magnanimous admiration fur and moral support of General Wash 
ington in the Revolutionary War. On the portrait he sent to Gen- 
eral Washington was in.scribed this modest tribute: "From the old 
est general in Europe to the greatest general in the world." And 
German- Americans who love to think of Germany and America as- 
forever bound by indissoluble ties of kinship and blood will also re 
member that Frederick the Great forbade his people to enlist 
againt tlie Colonies in the war of the Revolution, and to better en 
force it made strict orders limiting the embarkations for England. 
General Washington, in gratetui remembrance of the sympathy and 
interest shown by the great Frederick, placed the lattei's bust in 
the parlor of his home at Mt. Vernon. Frederick the Great was the^ 
first European ruler to recognize the new Republic of the United j) 
States. The American people have not less cause to be grateful to 
that great ruler of modern Germany, who, notwithstanding the ioter- 
natiooal intrigues, suspicions and misrepresentations aimed at him, 
has been a powerful factor in preserving the peace of the world. 

In a recent address President Roosevelt said: 

The ties that unite Germany and the United States are many 
and close, and it must be a prime object of our statesmanship to 
knit the two nations ever closer together. In no country is there a 
warmer admiration for Germany, and for Germany's exalted ruler, 
Blmperor William, than here in America. It is not out of place for 
me to say a word of congratulation both to the German people and 
the Emperor upon the work which has been accomplished in the Al- 
geciris conference, which has just closed, a conference held chiefly 
because of the initiative of Germany. 

Commenting upon this beautiful tribute which the President of 
the United States paid to the great Emperor, one of the ablest 
American newspapers said editorially: 

As we look back over the last two years we must admit that 
there was but little ground for the uueasinets with which we 
weighed the utterances and watched the movements of th« Emperor 
William II. 

Re\aewing international events of the last twenty-four months 
the same newspaper said: 

Had that sovereign really been Bctiiated by a lawless and un- 
scrupulous ambition he would have laid his grasp on Holland or 
crossed the French frontier within a week after the battle of Muk- 
den. That was the psychological moment. None knew it better 
than himself, and beyond a doubt he would have turned it to ao- 
coiint had he held human life and international peace as lightly as 







>-py- 



he was accused of holding tbem. The fact Ui at he put awav temp- 
tation, though it came to him in most seductive guise, should have 
convinced fair mindeti on-lookers that William II is not only a great 
man, he is a good man. »»**■***» Justice and equity 
caused many an American to feel respect for the forbearance and 
self-restraint with which the Emperor submitted to the advere ver- 
dict rendered by a majority of the powers assembled at Algeciris. 
Then and there he exemplified that self-conquest which, as we are 
told, more exalteth a man than the taking of a city. 

Germany and the German people are associated in our minds 
with some of the greatest military achievements in the history of the 
world. And a sort of popular idea has gained ground that the Ger- 
mans are essentially a military people. As a matter of fact their I 
greatest triumphs have been in the pathways of peace. The Ger- 6 
mans have carried their commercial supremacy to every quarter of 
the globe. Germany's educational institutions are the finest in the 
world. She has contributed the greatest names to the world of art, 
literature and science. Von Humboldt was to physical science what 
Goethe was to literature, what Bismarck was to statecraft, what Von 
Jloltke was to the military, and Wagner, Beethoven, and Schubert 
Were to music. Goethe said of Von Humboldt: "He had not his 
equal in knowledge, in living wisdom " At seventy-two he wrote 
•'Cosmos." Like Bismarck, his greatest work was accomplished at 
an age when most men have passed beyond their initiative. The 
value, as examples to the world, of such characters, is that they be- 
stowed their great benefactions upon taankind without exhibiting a 
single selfish ambition. Behold Bismarck and Von Moltke engaged 
in the work of moulding the German Empire, supplementing the 
military genius and imperial strength of the great Frederick. The 
former easily the greatest statesman of his day, without a single 
personal ambition save pride in his country's future, and Von 
Moltke, serving three kings in their turn, living simply and fru- 
gally, and attaining the age of ninety. It was said of Bismarck that 
he was born with the conviction that he should bring about the uni- 
fication of the German States, and he proceeded about the work of 
constructing the greatest empire of modern times in a manner that 
marked him as the strong man of the century, the Iron Chancellor, 
intensely human, but never selfish. Mark his address to the victori- 
ous army marching on Paris in 1870, and note the simple faith and 
the strong heart: 

If I did not believe in a Divine order which has destined this 
German nation for something good and great, I would at once give ^ 
up the business of diplomatist, or I would not have undertaken ti. 
Orders and titles have no charm for me. I owe the firmness which 
I have shown for ten years against all possible obstacles wholly to 
my decided faith. Take from me this faith, and you take from me 
my fatherland. This self denial and devotion to duty, to the State 
and to the King, is only the survival of the faith of our fathers and 
grandfathers transformed, indistinct, and yet alive. 

Bismarck was in many respects the greatest statesman of any 
age. He had the constructive genius of Napoleon, but was free 
from Napoleon's personal vanity and cruel ambition. Loyalty, 



1^' 



8 

steadfastness and simplicity were the guiding principles of his daily 
life. He disliked titles and show as he disliked popular hysteria. 
He loved nature and the children of nature. Said he; 

When so many people live close together, individualities natur- 
ally fade out and melt into each other. All sorts of opinions grow 
out of the air. opinions with little or no foundation in fact, but 
which get spread abroad through newspapers, popular gatherings, 
and talk in beer shops, and get themselves established, and are ine- 
radicable. There is a second false nature, an overgrowth on the 
first, a sort of faith or superstition of crowds. People talk them- 
selves into believing the thing that is not; consider it a duty and ob- 
ligation to adhere to that belief, and e.xcite themselves about preju- 
dices and absurdities. It is the same In all big towns. 

There is much of homely common sense and political wisdom in 
these observations, which seem not out of place when applied to 
.some of the exhibitions of urban popular discontentment shown in 
this country. Bismarck might not have made a popular candidate 
for office here in the United States, but he was a sensible and fear- 
less public servant. Bismarck and the German people generally 
I have taught the world the invaluable lesson that the best and clear- 
/ \ est political thought .springs from a.ssoclation with the soil and the 
Uorests. From the days of Hermann the most romantic and heroic 
pages of German history have been associated with the forests. 
Montesquieu and Thomas Carlyle said that the British constitution 
came out of the woods of Germany. Is it strange that at the end 
of a week of unflagging industry a German citizen should instinct- 
ively and naturally turn to the groves "which were God's first tem- 
ples," there to find that spiritual and bodily recreation, and that 
restoration which nature alone can supply. Germany has taught 
us the value of forestry as a national science. It is only within re- 
cent years that the people of the United States have profited by the 
les.«on, and have set apart large areas for forest propagation and 
preservation. Germany has more acres in proportion to her area set 
10 forests than we have in the United States. When the great 
Baron Steuben was in the closing days of his eventful career, which 
was such a priceless heritage to the cause of American liberty in the 
Kevolutionary War, he gave orders that after his death his body 
should be wrapped in his martial cloak and buried in the depths of 
the forests he loved so well. 

It is not strange that a people who Lave always dwelt so close to 
the heart of nature should have been inspired in all the ages by a 
love of liberty, and moved to triumphs in art, science, music and 
poetry, by the manlfolil voices of nature. Germany gave us a 
Schiller, of whom it was said: "Into his l)rief life of forty-five years he 
crowded more of intellectual and moral achievement than any other 
man of his age." He was a min.strel of liberty and joy, inspiring in 
the hearts of men and women a love of liberty which contributed in 
no small degree to the measure of constitutional rights which Ger - 
many today enjoys. It has been said of Schiller that be belonged to 
those: 



"Olympian bards who 3un^ 
Divine ideas below. 
Which always find us young. 
And always keep us so." 

He filled the hearts of men and women with optimism, sweet 
ness and light. His "Hymn to Joy" alone has done more to cheer 
drooping spirits and restore hope to the heart of man than any ser' 
mon ever uttered. 

"Jov is the mainspring in the whole. 
Of endless nature's calm rotation; 
Joy moves the dazzling wheels that roll 
In the great timepiece of creation. 

Joy breathes on buds, and flowers thev are, 
joy beckons— suns come forth from heaven, 

Joy rolls the spheres in realms afar 
jfear to thy glass dim wisdom given. 

Let all the world be peace and love. 

Cancel thy debt-book with thy brother. 
For God shall Judge of us above. 

As we shall judge each other." 

Therein is written the philosophy of life and of true happiness. 
There were only three great poets before Goethe, it has been said, 
who exerted an influence on the nation of which they were a part. 
These were Homer. Dante and Shakespeare. Goethe rose by a sin- 
gle bound until his fame spread all over Europe. No one since the 
days of Martin Luther had occupied so great a place in the intel- 
lectual thought of the German people. His last words were as a 
benediction upon humanity, as his great soul mounted higher and 
higher towards the celestial realms: "More light ! More light" ! 

The debt which the people of America owe to the Germans for 
aid in the Revolutionary struggle to establish a Republican govern- 
ment is a matter of history. It is doubtful if General Washington's 
army would have recovered from the winter at Valley Forge had it 
not been for the timely appearance and invaluable services and dis- 
ciplinary skill of Baron Steuben, one of the finest characters who 
ever gave a lifetime to battling for the rights of man, and then died 
in poverty. He had been aide-de-camp on the staflf of Frederick the 
Great. He brought to the discharge of his new duties the rich fruits 
of a splendid tutelage. He came at a time when the American Rev- 
olution army wa» full of distrust and intrigues, and when Wash- ' 
ington's hold upon his countrymen was rapidly becoming insecure. 
He taught the lesson so essential in all successful military operations, 
of subordination to authority. It is well that this nation, in tardy 
recognition of his great services, is to erect a monument to his 
memory In Washington, where it will stand in commanding view of 
the White House, a mute but everlasting sentinel over American 
liberty. 

Three of the greatest general oflScers in the Revolutionary War 
were Germans— Steuben, Dekalb and Von de Woedke. General 
Washington's mounted bodyguard, led by Major Vtan Heer, was 
composed of fourteen officers and fifty-three men, all Germans. The 



10 

'ifennans bare been foremost in fill the wars for the preserratfoD of 
the country, beginning even with the French and Indian M'ar, and 
the operations of the famous General Bouquet's Royal American 
Regiment, all recruited from among the Germans of Pennsylvania, 
who served with Wolfe at Quebec, and avenged Braddock's defeat. 
Peter Muhlenburg left the pulpit for his sword, applauded by his 
grandfather; a pioneer clergyman. His monument is in the gallery 
of the nation's immortals, in Statuary Hall. The first Declaration 
of Amierican Independence was declared by the Germans of North 
Carolina at the Mecklenburg Convention, May 19, 177.5, more than a 
year before the Declaration of Independence was signed at Phila- 
delphia.* 

Among the conspicuous German soldiers of the Revolutionary 
War was Baron De OttendorflF, who had served under Frederick the 
Great in the Seven Years AVar Among the Germans who served 
under Count Rochambeau were Count Fersen, Barou Von Holzen- 
dorf , Counts Christian and William Von Sweibrucken, and Baron 
De'Ezbech. Count De Wittgenstein commanded a division under 
Rochambeau. DeKalb fell mortally wounded leading the German 
.soldiers from the States of Maryland and Delaware, with these 
words on his lips: 

I die the death I always prayed for — the death of a soldier, fight- 
ing for the rights of man. 

Among thi- names which added lustre to the Union army during 
the Civil War were Blenker and Sigel. The latter organized the 
German regiments that saved Missouri to the Union. Blenker's 
division won honors at Bull Run and immortalized themselves at 
Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. Asboth. who commanded a cav- 
alry brigade, had one troop, the 4th Missouri Cavalry, recruited al- 
most entirely from Germans. Its I..ieut«nant-Colouel, Von Helm- 
rich, was for twenty years a cavalry soldier in Germany. 

Indiana sent to the Civil War for the Union the 23nd Indiana, 
(First German Regiment) commanded in turn by Willich, Von 
Treba, and Erdelmeyer. Illinois supplied such generals as Hecker, 
Knobelsdorf, Greusel, Englemann, and Julius Raith, who fell at 
Shiloh leading a brigade. 

Then there was Peter .1. Osterhaus, who was recently signally 
honored by Congress. Indiana had in her volunteer regiments 6,456 
German soldiers. Albert Lange was an invaluable aid to Governor 
Morton, and John B. Lutz led the Indiana forces against Morgan, 
the raider. The 32nd was a distinctively German regiment, organ- 
ized in Dearbon, Floyd, Allen and .Jefferson counties. 

Beginning with the attitude assumed by Frederick the Great to- 
wards the Colonists in the Revolutionary War down to and includ- 
ing the events of the Spanish-American War, Germany has been th^ 



*The accuracy of this statement was challenged bv an editorial in the Indianapolis 
News July 17, entitled, 'Tor Truth of History." In giving the German's credit for the 
Mecklenburg declaration the author relied, among other authorities, on Rosengarten's 
work, "The German soldier in the Wars of the United Slates," iSgo, Page 36. 



11 

steadfast friend of the Uni'ed Siates in every struggle involvintt the 
life of this. republic. Prussia was the first foreign power to express 
confidence in the credit of the government during the early days of 
the Civil War, by making liberal purchases of our bonds 

It is not out of place here to call attention to a phase of the diplo- 
matic relations of the United Slates in the early part of the Spanish- 
American War. On Friday, April 8, 1898, there was a memorable 
scene at the White House, when Sir Julian Pauncefote, the British 
Ambassador, presented a note to President McKiuley from the pow- 
ers of Europe on the right of the United States to interfere between 
Spain and Cuba. The answer of President McKiuley to this note 
was courteous but decisive. It promptly denied the right of the 
powers of Europe to question the good faith of the United States to 
intervene. 

Immediately following this incident there appeared in the news 
papers of the country a glowing tribute to the friendly offices shown 
by Sir Julian Pauncefote for the United States, and he was given 
credit for having taken control, as dean of the diplomatic corps, of 
this movement among the powers of Europe, and having reduced it 
from a protest, to the mildest form of representation. 

But for the sake of the truth of history it should be said here 
that it was the Emperor of Germany, William II, who reached 
out his strong arm and arrested the movement of the powers. 

The first meeting called to consider the matter was called by the 
British Ambassador under instructions from the Foreign Office in 
Ijondon. In the conference were the diplomatic representatives of 
England, France, Italy and Austria. The Russian Ambassador was 
abroad. Four days before the meeting was called Dr. Von Hollebeu, 
the German Ambassador, received a note from the Emperor forbid, 
ding him to be a party to this movement, and formally recognizing 
the right of the United States to interfere between Spain and Cuba. 
At the first meeting of the diplomatic representatives of the powers 
named, the German Ambassador presented the note and stated his 
position. Its effect on the conference was restraining. The pro. 
posed protest was promptly modified and became a, mild expression 
of the hope that war might be averted. About the same time Em. 
peror William conveyed to Lord Saulsbury in unmistakable lan- 
guage his attitude of thorough approval of the course outlined by- 
the United States Government in its future policy towards Spain 
and Cuba. At the time these incidents were occurring the part 
which Emperor William had played towards the United States was 
not publicly known. 

Diplomatic history is usually not contemporaneous. It was four 
years after tne historic meeting in the White House, or in 1903, 
when published diplomatic correspondence revealed to the world 
the great service which the German Emperor had rendered to the 
United States in that emergency. But the incident was only an- 
other link in that chain of friendship which began in the days when 
the struggling Colonies were fighting for the very life of Republican 
government, and which has been completed link by link through 



12 

erery phase of our coantry's history and development, which binds 
securely in eTerlasting brotherhood the interests of Germany and 
the United States. And these relations will continue to grow 
stronger and closer as the years go by. It cannot be otherwise. It 
every walk of American life the men who are achieving the greatest 
individual success are the sons of Germany, and thus the interests 
of the two nations are interwoven. 

Of the many contributions which Germany has made to eurich 
the citizenship of this republic, ihere is none more valuable than the 
name and fame of Carl Schurz. He was one of the purest natures 
that ever gave his life to battle for the cause of human rights. He 
came to the United States when but twenty-three years old, but he 
had already passed through momentous events sufficient for one 
lifetime. 

America must have been attractive to young Schurz at the time, 
lor the country was in the throes of the struggle against slavery, 
which preceded the Civil War. His voice was at once raised on the 
side of liberty. When war came he left his post as Minister to 
Spain, to become the first colonel of the first volunteer regiment of 
cavalry.) Schurz was fitted by nature and accomplishment to be the 
pioneer « reform movements. He blazed the trail of American 
\ :>. political thought for more than a quarter of a century. He was 
/ almost invariably right. He never advocated a reform in which he 
was not one of the pioneers, nor in which he was not in a hopeless 
minority, and never advocated any cause which did not ultimately 
become a part of the statutes of the land, or of the great moral law 
of his country.\ He never ceased to labor, and like Bismarck and 
Vq n Moltke, was as virile apparently, at the age of seventy-seven as 
in the zenith of his career. In whatever position he was tried he 
rendered his adopted country singularly valuable and patriotic serv- 
ice. His talents were not limited to any one State or community" 
He was a leader wherever he happened to appear. He was the nom- 
inee of his party for Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin. He con- 
ducted great newspapers in Detroit, St. Louis, and New York, and 
served in the United States Senate from Missouri. He came 
through the fiat-money days of the war unscathed, and contributed 
no small part to the restoration of the nation's finances to a sound 
basis. 

As secretary of the Interior he quickly solved the abuses of the 
spoils system. He was daily in touch with the demoralizing effect 
spoils politics were having on the public service. He introduced the 
competitive merit system, and inspired President Haya to reverse 
he ma.xim of William L. Marcy: "To the victor belongs the spoils," 
and substitute for it the other doctrine which has made Mr. Hayes 
justly celebrated: "No removal except for cause, and no promotion 
except for merit " 

With Civil Service Reform, as with nearly every principle he ad- 
vocated, Mr. Schurz was the pioneer. He evolved his plan of Civil 
Service and applied it to the Department over which he presided six 



13 

years before the Civil Service Act was put ou the statute books by 
George H. Pendleton. 

He pursued the timber thieves and opposed great rings of cor- 
rupt men who sought to seize the public lands or spoiliate the Indi- 
ans. He did these things just as they are being done today in the 
public service, but unlike the men who are today winning the plau- 
its o£ the country tor this work, Mr. Schurz was the pioneer, and he 
had to meet all the opposition and contend against all the obstacles 
which fall to the lot of the pioneer in any reform movement. He 
contributed his full measure to the military and civic renown of his 
country, and made more than the contribution ol one ordinary man 
to the world's cause of social reform and played no humble part in 
the world of letters. He is an example and an inspiration to the Ger- 
man Americans everywhere. He was the born patriot, the lover of 
liberty, and the defender of truth. Such men, by the peculiar fickle- 
ness of politics, seldom obtain the highest rewards in official life. Not 
infrequently, when the social forces which they have set in motion 
have developed into great popular movements that are irresistable, 
and take the form of statute or the great unwritten moral law, the 
prime mover of such reform is remembered only by the great body 
of his fellowmen as one who was visionary, intemperate of thought 
and action, but withal, a voice crying in the wilderness. Fortu- 
nately the real reward of such heroes is far above and beyond the 
acclaim of the multitude or the bestowal of its temporary official 
honors. The consciousness of duty faithfully performed is a greater 
reward than any of these. Finer natures only can appreciate its 
value. It requires real courage to become the leader of a movement 
that combats contemporary custom and thought, greater courage 
oft-times than it requires to lead an army. It is to such men as 
Carl Schurz tuat the world owes all it possesses in the advancement 
of the cause of human liberty and human justice. 

It requires no great courage to float with the popular tide, to 
utter felicitations and win applause. The true civic hero is he who 
dares look his countrymen in the face and tell them when they are 
wrong. Such a man was Carl Schurz. He led a life of unselfish de 
votion to the cause of humanity. His fame will grow as the years 
advance, and as men come to recognize more clearly the inestimable 
value of individuality in politics. Mr. Schurz taught his country- 
men to act and vote independently. When he commenced it few be- 
lieved with him, for party spirit was high. But his school of 
thought has more followers today; men are no longer blind follow- 
ers of blind leaders in politics. 

The great composite which we call the American citizen has 
been improved by the German people. The richest and most prosper- 
ous communities in the United States today are those settled by 
German-Americans. They have made their full contributions to the 
military history of the United States, and have been foremost in the 
commercial and financial world. Probably their most valuable 
service has been in their quiet but powerful influence e.xerted in the 
plain walks of American citizenship. One of the chief qualities of a 



14 

German is loyalty, loyalty to his country, to the community of 
which he is a citizen, or t<j the interests confided to his care. With 
all the dcTotion t» fatherland, and his strong hereditary instinct, 
a German after all finds his chiefest pride in the land he calls home. 
He is a stable quantity in politics; he does not yield readily to popu- 
lar hysteria; the seeds of popular discontent or social unrest find no 
propitious soil in the community where the German character is 
predominant. 

The late President Garfield, in his eulogy delivered in 1879 on 
Gnstav Schleicher, of Texas, an able and learned member of the 
House, said: 

We are accustomed to call England our fatherland. It is a mis- 
take. One of the greatest of modern historians, writing the history of 
Enelish people has said, that England is not the fatherland of the 
Engllsh-speHking people, but Germany. 

"As tar's the German accent rings 
And hymns to God in heaven sings, 
That is the land- 
There, brother, is thy fatherland. 

There is the German's fatherland, 

Where oaths attest the grasped hand, 

Where truth beams from the sparkling eyes. 

And in the heart love warmly lies — 

That is the land, 

There, brother, is thy fatherland. 



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